Reality Is Not What It Seems
Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity is an illustrated book by Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli. The book discusses quantum gravity. It was first published in Italian in 2014. It was published in English in 2016 by which time the English translation of Seven Brief Lessons had already been released.
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- I just finished Rovelli's "Reality Is Not What It Seems" last weekend and enjoyed it. It is a broad and high level summary of the progress of physics and the book ends with some of the more speculative ideas being pursued. I especially enjoyed the "thermal time" ideas you mention, which he touches on in this book.
- From my favorite theoretical physicist (author of "The order of time", "Reality is not what it seems", "Helgoland", etc.) comes yet another book referencing his fascinating work.
- (0) is a great book that explains very neatly why even long disproved models of physics were right, only less right then newer models.
(0) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_Is_Not_What_It_Seems
- Someone already mentioned “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”, so I’ll go with something I read last year, Carlo Rovelli’s, “Reality is Not What it Seems.”
I don’t think I really ever grasped the concept of relativity fully until reading that book — at least the aspects of time. [edit: well, not “fully”, I’m sure — but at least a lot more than I have in the past.]
At the same time I read the Dalai Lama’s, “Universe in a Single Atom”, which focuses on his love of science / physics, and was a very good pair to Rovelli’s book. It made me really think about the role of subjectivity in terms of Relativity. It also made me think about life, and consciousness, broadly.
That led to the Dalai Lama’s other book, “A Profound Mind”, which helped me really understand the Buddhist concept of “Emptiness” for the first time.
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Reality is Not What it Seems by Carlo Rovelli
The Brain: The Story of You by David Eagleman
I had a crack at reading the first Game of Thrones novel (I think it's just called A Game of Thrones) but my brain seems to be in non-fiction mode at the moment. I think I'm drawn to a kind of sweet spot halfway between "related to my everyday experience" and "removed from my everyday experience" - not sure I could read about programming or business at the moment, though I also haven't tried.
